


Mystique

by lachatblanche



Series: Dollhouse AU [28]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Consent Issues, M/M, Mild Gore, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-29
Updated: 2013-03-29
Packaged: 2017-12-06 19:55:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lachatblanche/pseuds/lachatblanche
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik is introduced to Mystique.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mystique

Erik stared, unable to think or move or do anything but look at the girl in front of him.

Raven had dropped her arm down to her side and was now blinking at him with an owlish expression on her face. 

‘Oh,’ she said vacantly. ‘You’re here. You’re not supposed to be here. Not yet.’

For a moment Erik couldn’t even breathe.

‘Raven,’ he choked out, the words sticking in his throat. ‘Raven, what-’

At that moment, however, there was a noise from the doorway and suddenly the two other members of Erik’s retrieval team loomed up behind him, their guns raised and pointed in Raven’s direction.

Erik saw Raven’s eyes widen and sudden panic erupted inside of him as he realised what was going to happen.

‘No!’ he shouted, raising his hands up in an attempt to push the guns aside, ‘Don’t hurt-’

He hadn’t even completed his sentence before there was a sickening crack and Erik’s eyes widened in fear as he spun around, hoping against hope that nothing had happened to Raven. 

But Raven was no longer there.

There was a sudden movement to his side and when he turned around he saw, to his utter disbelief, one of his men on the ground while the other was valiantly trying – and failing – to fend off a wild, vicious attack from Raven, who seemed to have transformed into some kind of feral creature in the few milliseconds that he had looked away.

Erik could do nothing but stare.

She was magnificent. Had he come across the scene in any other circumstance, Erik would have appreciated Raven’s fluid, graceful movements and the obvious superiority of her skill and technique. Now though … Erik felt his stomach twist inside of him as he tried to make sense of what was happening right in front of him.

He couldn’t understand it. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to understand it. Raven – his sweet, bossy, stubborn little Raven – had somehow turned into a vicious killer. A vicious, _competent_ killer.

… He didn’t know her at all.

Even as he thought this, Raven wrenched the gun from the man’s hand in one smooth move and, before Erik could so much as blink, she had brutally rammed the butt down on the man’s head, causing him to let out a terrible gurgling noise before crashing down to the floor, unmoving.

‘Don’t worry,’ Raven said calmly as Erik started forward, the sound of her voice causing him to arrest his movement. ‘He’s not dead.’ She looked at him and blinked wide, innocent eyes. ‘They’re both unconscious, that’s all. I knew you’d be mad if I really hurt them.’ She sounded almost proud of her restraint, as if she had been _generous_ in merely knocking the men unconscious. Erik, staring down at the bodies of his men in disbelief, found that he could hardly bring himself to look at her.

‘Raven,’ he was well aware that his voice sounded like gravel but at the moment he really couldn’t care less. ‘Raven – what the hell is this?’

Raven’s face fell and she ducked her head, looking shame-faced for the first time since Erik had walked through the door.

‘You weren’t supposed to see this,’ she mumbled, her head lowered and her eyes on the floor. Erik remembered her making this exact same pose when she had accidentally spilt a cup of coffee on one of his case files, and the stark contrast between the situations made him feel sick.

‘I wasn’t supposed to see this,’ he repeated dumbly, staring at her. ‘I – you _killed Essex_.’ He shook his head, as if unable to comprehend the very words that he was saying. ‘Raven - you’re a _murderer_.’

Raven’s lips immediately turned down in a pout and she gazed at him with a look of intense reproach. Erik quickly turned his face away. He couldn’t look at her. Not with that expression. Not with all that blood on her hands. 

Instead, he took a ragged breath and closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead with cold stiff fingers. He could feel the beginnings of a migraine take root inside his brain, making it very difficult for him to think straight.

‘How did you even find this place?’ he asked after a moment, trying to keep his voice calm and stopper up the rage and grief that was brewing far too close to the surface. ‘How did – Did you always know?’

Raven snorted at that.

‘Course not,’ she said with a huff of derision. ‘Do you honestly think that I would have let him live this long if I had?’ She shook her head scornfully. ‘No, I bugged your phone.’ She gave a careless shrug. ‘And I hacked into your computer. It’s why I moved in next to you, you know,’ she added, not seeming to notice how still and silent Erik was being. ‘I couldn’t find him on my own so I came to you. I figured that if I couldn’t find him then the police could. That’s why I sent you the list.’

Erik’s head jerked up. 

‘You,’ he said, trying to keep his voice low and calm. ‘You sent me that list.’

‘Naturally,’ Raven said, flicking her long blonde hair over her shoulder. ‘I’m good at what I do, of course, but the police have way more resources. It made sense,’ she said in a matter-of-fact voice, as if she weren’t talking about a conspiracy to _murder_ a man in cold blood. ‘So I just came to you to try and help you along with the investigation. Imagine my surprise when I found out that you were in love with my _brother_!’ She laughed then, and clapped her hands together like a joyful child.

Erik put his hands to his head, feeling slightly dizzy.

‘Charles,’ he bit out, his fists clenching as he tried to restrain himself. ‘Your brother. Was he really who you said he was? Or -’ he swallowed, ‘or was everything you said about him a lie too?’

Raven’s expression immediately fell at the mention of her brother’s name. Her eyes seemed to well up with unshed tears.

‘Charles,’ she said in a small, mournful voice. She looked more fragile and child-like than Erik had ever seen her and the incongruity made his head spin. ‘No – no. I never lied about him. Not about Charles. Not to you.’

Instead of reassuring him, however, this only made Erik angrier.

‘So why do this?’ he demanded harshly, his back ramrod straight and his fists clenched tight. ‘What’s the point? Do you think he’d want this for you? That he’d _approve_ of this? His own sister – a _murderer_!’

Raven flinched. 

‘I’m doing this _for_ him!’ she snarled, her whole body tensing up with anger. ‘I’m doing this to get him _out_ of there!’

‘Oh?’ Erik sneered, baring his teeth and gesturing furiously at the other side of the room. ‘Then why the _fuck_ did you just go and _kill_ the only man that could have helped us actually _find_ him?’

Raven blinked, her anger disappearing in an instant, and she looked around the room with a vague expression. 

‘Oh,’ she said, stepping forward and kicking Essex’s lifeless body. ‘Him. Yeah, he wouldn’t have been any help.’

Erik waited but she didn’t explain any further, causing him to lose what little patience he had.

‘He could have led us to the Dollhouse!’ he snarled, barely able to keep himself from reaching out and shaking her. ‘He could have led us to _Charles_! And you _killed_ him, Raven! You _murdered_ our best chance at finding your brother, you _stupid_ little girl!’

Raven watched him coolly, not looking the least bit upset at this outburst. ‘You would have had more luck asking the first random guy you met on the street,’ she said with an indifferent shrug. ‘This guy,’ she jabbed her thumb in the direction of Essex’s corpse, ‘knows squat.’ At Erik’s frown she continued. ‘They wiped him,’ she explained, and then made a whistling noise and whipped a finger away from her head. ‘Essex is gone. You thought that he just changed his name? He didn’t. They changed _him_. This guy here? He really _was_ Nathan Kent, family doctor. At least as far as he knew. Which is all that really matters, right?’

Erik didn’t say anything. The news that Essex – that _Kent_ – had known nothing somehow made his heart sink even lower in his chest. He knew it was irrational – whether Essex had known anything or not hardly mattered when he was _dead_ – but the fact that Essex no longer even _existed_ as a person meant that he had hung all of his hopes on nothing; that there were no more leads for him to find; that … Erik paused. Slowly, he turned to face Raven.

‘You knew this,’ he said quietly. ‘You _knew_ he would be of no use – that he was a _different man_ – and yet you still killed him.’ His cold anger wavered then and for a moment his expression was raw with a mixture of grief and disgust. ‘Christ, Raven,’ he swore, turning his face away. ‘What the hell is _wrong_ with you?’

In an instant Raven’s blasé indifference gave way to an almost frightening seething, frothing rage.

‘What’s _wrong_ with me?’ she hissed, her eyes sparking and her teeth bared in fury. She turned and, bending down, grasped hold of Essex’s hair and wrenched his body up, shoving it towards Erik. ‘Ask _him_! Ask this sonofabitch what is wrong with me! Ask him what he did to me – what he _made_ me! _Ask_ him!’

Erik stared at Raven, unable to speak. His eyes roved from her rage-filled eyes to her spit-flecked mouth, and then to the carcass that she was clutching with one hand. He felt his heart begin to sink. He had always suspected but now he was almost completely sure of it: there was something seriously wrong with Raven.

Swallowing, he tried a different approach.

‘Raven,’ he said slowly, making his voice as soothing and gentle as possible, ‘Raven, it’s okay. I understand.’

Raven stopped. She blinked and cocked her head, studying him.

Erik tried again. ‘Raven,’ he licked his lips. ‘Raven, I think – I think you should let me take you home. It’s – it’s been a long day and you need rest. We both do. And we need to talk.’

Raven was watching him closely.

‘Talk,’ she said slowly.

Erik nodded.

‘Yes,’ he said, reaching out for her with one arm. ‘Talk. About everything … about – Charles.’

Raven didn’t speak for a moment. Then:

‘You _always_ want to talk about Charles,’ she said, and Erik was surprised at the sudden spite in her voice. She folded her arms and glared at him, her eyes narrowing. ‘ _Everyone_ always wants to talk about Charles!’

Erik swallowed. He hadn’t a clue as to what was going on inside Raven’s head. All he knew was that he had to tread carefully.

‘Isn’t he why you’re doing this?’ he asked gently, softening his tone. ‘For him? For Charles?’

He did not expect the look of anger that blazed across Raven’s face at that.

‘Of course I’m doing this for him!’ she spat, her shoulders stiffening as she tensed up. ‘You think I have a _choice_? After what he _did_?’ Erik didn’t answer, which made Raven narrow her eyes. ‘And what about _you_?’ she challenged, folding her arms and glaring at him. ‘What’s your reason for searching for him?’ 

Still Erik remained silent. Seeing that he wasn’t going to say anything, Raven shook her head and let out a bitter laugh.

‘And that’s what I mean,’ she said, smiling viciously. ‘You don’t even know. You just know that he’s _Charles_ and he’s _special_ and all that other shit that I’ve been listening to _my whole life_.’

There was a pause. And all of sudden Erik realised that Raven was jealous.

‘You resent him,’ he said in a tone of wonder, staring at her. ‘You resent your brother for all this.’

‘You’re damn right I resent him!’ Raven snarled, slamming her foot down on the ground and clenching her fists. ‘ _He’s_ the reason why this happened to me! It’s because of _him_ that they took me! It’s because of him that I am what I am!’

There was silence. Then:

‘What do you mean?’ Erik demanded, his voice cold. His jaw was set and there was a flinty look in his eyes as he stared at the girl standing across from him.

Raven let out a hysterical laugh. 

‘It’s _him_!’ she all but shrieked. ‘Everything is _always_ about him! What makes this any different?’ She looked almost upset that Erik didn’t seem to understand.

‘Raven,’ Erik’s tone was stern but there was a pleading note in his voice now, torn as he was between grief and anger. ‘Raven, this is _nonsense_. Charles is a _victim_ here – just like you are!’

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because Raven immediately bristled, stiffening and baring her teeth at him.

‘I am _not_ a victim!’ she hissed angrily, her eyes flashing with fury. ‘I am not some helpless _child_ to be pitied! Charles always, _always_ -’ she choked then, and her rage suddenly disappeared, leaving her trembling and pale. ‘Charles,’ she whispered, her shoulders sagging and her hands falling limply to her sides. ‘Oh Charles,’ she crooned and, to Erik’s latent horror, she began to rock back and forth, her arms coming up to frame her chest.

Erik swallowed and turned away, unable to look at the pathetic creature before him. Instead, he cast an uneasy eye around the room, his eyes lingering on the bodies on the floor. 

‘I-’ he began and Raven’s eyes immediately shot up to meet his. Faced with her intense stare, he found himself unable to speak.

Slowly, Raven dropped her arms to her side and straightened up.

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ she said casually, as if she hadn’t just been curled in on herself and whimpering like a child. ‘But you’re wrong.’ She met Erik’s eyes and held his gaze, her expression serious. ‘I’m not mad, you know. Well – _one_ of me _is_ a little screwed in the head, but she’s not exactly hanging-from-the-chandeliers frothing-at-the-mouth mad, if you know what I mean.’

‘I was thinking more along the lines of “homicidal maniac”,’ Erik said before he could stop himself. Then he frowned. ‘What do you mean, “ _one_ ” of you?’

Raven shrugged.

‘Well, there’s more than one of me, isn’t there?’ at Erik’s befuddled look, she brought her hand up and tapped a finger on the side of her head. ‘In here, I mean. Didn’t I tell you? _Dear_ Dr. Essex here,’ she kicked the body on the floor again, ‘we used to be quite close, he and I. He used to experiment on me, you see’ She watched with a detached expression as the blood left Erik’s face. ‘Yes, it wasn’t very pleasant, as I’m sure you can imagine. He was trying to get me to retain the skills and abilities that were inputted into my brain so that I’d be some sort of … I don’t know – advanced human being, or something. Unfortunately,’ she gave a dramatic sigh. ‘It all backfired. Instead of just retaining the skills, I retained the personalities.’ She looked up at Erik’s horrified face and gave a wry smile. ‘As you can imagine, it’s really rather crowded up in here, most days.’

Erik was shaking his head weakly, filled both with impotent rage and desperate pity.

‘Raven,’ he said wretchedly. ‘Raven, I didn’t _know_. I …’ words failed him and he quickly shut his mouth. He knew better than most that sometimes words just weren’t enough.

Raven, however, merely laughed.

‘Never mind that,’ she said with a small laugh. ‘The point is you were right. There are more than a few of me who are … _homicidally_ active, I’ll admit. But then I also have a virginal nun and a 12-year-old school girl in here as well. Make of that what you will.’

Erik deliberately refrained from wondering about the type of sick bastard who would request such personality imprints and instead sealed his lips tightly together, watching Raven worriedly.

‘So,’ he said slowly, ‘you’re saying that you have all those … _people_ inside of you?’ Try as he might, he could not stop himself sounding a good deal more hesitant and tentative than he had intended. ‘That all those – _personalities_ that the Dollhouse loaded you with – they’re _inside your head_?’

Raven smirked.

‘You got it, doll-face,’ she drawled, looking almost proud of herself. ‘All thirty-six of us.’ Her expression shuttered for a moment. ‘Essex got his hands on me early,’ she murmured, her eyes lowering slightly. ‘I wasn’t at the Dollhouse for very long, but – believe me – it was long enough.’ She raised her arms and dropped them back to her sides as if to say “what can you do”.

Erik was finding this extremely hard to process. 

‘So there are thirty-six people in your head.’ He stared at her, his eyes wide. ‘Christ, Raven, how do you even – how do you _function_? How are you able to even stand up?’

Raven smirked but there was little humour to it.

‘Getting everyone to agree to even the smallest thing can be a bitch,’ she admitted. ‘But luckily I’m stronger. The dominant personality, so to speak.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s mostly me,’ she continued in a small voice. ‘There’s just … a whole lot of other me’s in there, too.’

‘Christ,’ Erik shook his head. ‘I can’t even – Why didn’t you go back? Surely they would have fixed it? They can’t have intended for you to remain this way?’

‘They didn’t intend it at all,’ Raven gave a harsh laugh. ‘It was purely _this_ sonofabitch here-’ and here she kicked at Essex’s corpse with her foot ‘-who did this to me, all by his lonesome. And yeah, I guess they would fix it,’ she then met Erik’s eyes and beneath the casual veneer he could see the unfettered rage and fury that boiled and churned within, ‘but before I do that I am going to _rip_ that fucking place apart with my bare hands and kill every single one of the motherfuckers that _ever_ dared to put their hands on me.’

There was very little that Erik could say in response to that, especially when he knew damn well that he would have resolved to do much the same if he were in Raven’s shoes. Nevertheless, he tried.

‘Raven,’ he said gently, ‘this isn’t right. You’re not _well_. You have _thirty-six people_ in your head, for god’s sake. This can’t continue, Raven – you need _help_.’

Raven merely scoffed.

‘Keep your hair on,’ he said, looking slightly amused. ‘I’ve been this way for years now – I can handle a few more months.’

Erik had just opened his mouth to say something sarcastic about just how _well_ that had been going for her when there came a sudden buzz from the comms link at his waist, causing him to freeze.

‘Captain, this is Delta three-one-zero, requesting status, over.’

Erik’s mouth went dry. He had completely forgotten about the men he had left in the building stairwell. He had spent more time than he’d realised, talking to Raven, and the men he’d left behind were probably anxious. He was rather surprised that they hadn’t interrupted sooner.

He licked his lips and, slowly, he glanced at Raven who was watching him with wide, apprehensive eyes.

Erik swallowed. Then his hand darted towards his belt.

Before his fingers could so much as brush against the radio, there was a soft rustle and suddenly Erik felt a blinding pain in his forehead and then he was on the floor, blinking dazedly and staring up at Raven, who stood over him with a cool expression.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said matter-of-factly, ‘I don’t like hurting you, but it’s better this way. Trust me.’

And before Erik could even open his mouth to tell her to go fuck herself, Raven’s foot collided with the side of his head and then he knew no more.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Easter everyone!


End file.
